Into the Fire The Equestrian Federation's Tale
by Richardson
Summary: Friendship, and Peace comes at a high cost.  When the world as you know it turns upside down, and things long thought lost come back to haunt the present day, can there be any hope for a better tomorrow, or will the Shadows claim the galaxy for their own?


*POIT!* HI! I'm Pinkie Pie, and this is a Public Service Announcement! I'm just here to tell you all that neither me and my bestest buds in the whole wide multiverse work for those craaaaaaazy ponies at Hasbro, and that Cap'n Sheridan and his merry band of misfits, and that whole awesome little corner of the multiverse belong to Strazayks... Stravosky... err, JMS, and the Warner Brothers Studio! The author's not getting ~ANNNY~ money off of this, and any reproduction of this work is to be free only! Because if you try and make people pay...

**Cupcakes.**

**_For-EV-ERRR!_** *Whap!* Owww! Hey, what~Mrrphshhghhpphbbblleee! *4th Wall properly closed back on the interloper from beyond*

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><p>Historians have often asked what, would have happened, what would have been had Equestria not revealed itself to the galaxy at large. Their presence has been the primary stabilizing force for the past 100 years, their natures allowing them to act as a buffer when blows would have otherwise begun, and wars and blood loosed amongst the stars. Like the Babylon series of neutral stations (themselves perpetuated by the Equestrians after the Earth Alliance ended it's backing of the project), historical documents declassified and discovered both have revealed a both grander, yet more horrifying tapestry of the events of those dark days. To their sacrifices, and those of so many others around them, we dedicate this documentary, so that their history shall not be forgotten.<br>**Preface to the Documentary: Into the Fire, Babylon 5 and the Founding of the Interstellar Alliance**

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><p>"Pinkie Pie, what are yae doing, you silly filly?" Applejack looked on with worry and interest as the pink, hyperactive pony wobbled and vibrated past her vendor's stall. She had already gently lowered the cover over it in case of the fluff-maned filly crashing into it, as she looked on with worry.<p>

"I dunno, but it's a Doozie again!" Pinkie's semi-squealed words carried an odd doppler effect as she vibrated all over, her tail standing on end and swishing-twitching so hard it was a vague pink blur. "OOOOOOO! OOOO! Twitchy-Tail Doozie! This is gonna be _cr~aaaa~aaazy_!"

At the mention of the most infamous 'pinkie-sense reaction', mares and stallions alike grabbed their wares and children, diving for cover within buildings and under stalls everywhere. Applejack herself quickly pulling her broad hat rapidly off, a hoof smashing a cheap plastic box marked 'In Case of Pinkie'.

"Uh, Pinkie, by 'doozie', yae mean Twilight throwing another tantrum again? _Right_?" Applejack carefully sat her helmet atop her blond-maned head, praying under her breath ever so slightly to Celestia that whatever Pinkie was feeling wasn't going to cause a ruckus like the last time.

Already, the pastel painted town was starting to look like a ghost town as the word spread through the streets. Pinkie paid the reaction little heed as she vibrated onwards, the customary bounce associated with her disrupted by her fit.

"I think so, but I've only had the one! It's not like it happens every week!" Pinkie changed her course, or had simply started vibrating in a new direction, as the orange earth pony cautiously followed her after locking up her cart. The pink hyper-pony paid seemingly no heed as she continued on, the massive hollowed out tree that served as the hamlet's library now in her path.

"Oh crab-apples, sum'thing tells me Twilight's not gonna be happy." Applejack looked about for a moment, before running onwards looking to get ahead of the fluffy pinkish blur. Twilight needed the heads up, if Pinkie kept on her course.

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><p>Deep in the old library (it almost seemed bigger on the inside to some), the recipient of Pinkie Pie's last 'Doozie' was working with the town tailor and fashionata, Rarity, researching the source of a recent vexing concern, blissfully unaware of the oncoming storm. Arranged on the reading tables were mountains of books on the Principalities' royalty, the lilac colored unicorn continued to mark down the various relationships between royal families, Rarity looking about at the tangled web woven on the pinkish walls.<p>

"Rarity, like I told you, due to his agreements with Princess Celestia, and the town charter, _and_ his inherited territories, there is literally less than nothing that he can do to you to get even over what happened at the Gala." Twilight waved a hoof dismissively, as she began to close some of the books, looking to get things cleaned up.

"Twilight, darling, _I_... I'm... sorry, for wasting your time like this. I've just had such a dread over this today." The white unicorn sighed slightly in relief, knowing that her justified, if slightly overdone blowup on 'Prince' Blueblood a few weeks back at the grand gala. She still wondered why in Celestia she had ever fallen for him in the first place, given that his behavior had been on display the whole time if she had bothered to even look.

"Rarity, all you had to do was ask to begin with. I am your friend after all. And I learned more about the royal families today than I did in the 10 years I lived in Canterlot working for the Princess herself." Twilight continued to put things away, as she filed the information away in her mind. She hardly ever forgot anything she learned, though at this point she had issues sorting through it all, a vast archive of knowledge pooled in her head.

"Well, I did tell you to get out of the library more often Twilight." The small purple and green dragon who had been helping the two with their research. Spike had been raised by Twilight since birth, and was her best assistant. It helped that he had hands instead of hooves, after all.

"Oh, I can't say that her quest for knowledge is all _that_ bad, imagine what sort of state I would be in if she hadn't been around to help me out this morning! Why, I can't imagine the state the town would be in without you now, after the events of this past year, darling." Rarity shuffled around as she heaped up her praise, looking for some way to more aesthetically arrange the library now that she had the chance.

"It's noth-" Twilight had been walking past the front door of the library, moving a small stack of books back to the front shelves, when the clattering of galloping hooves gave half second's warning before Applejack's hard head rammed the front door, slamming it open into Twilight's face. The thick hardwood and steel door knocked her head over heels onto her back, the heavy books she had been telekinetically carrying flying into the air to land on her with a series of painful-sounding thuds and thumps.

"-Twiiiiiiiliiight! Pinkie's got another Doozie again!... Twilight?" The hard-hatted farmer-pony looked around as she shouted for her victim, the lilac pony groaning beneath her painful coating of books.

"Applejack!" Rarity shouted in warning at the orange pony as she rushed to her friend's aid, the young dragon joining her in pulling the distressed pony out from under her study material. As she moved, Applejack hoped to one side and out of the way of the rescue efforts, looking outside to the vibrating pink blur not too far away. "Could you be any more inconsiderate of other people's homes, Applejack? You could have knocked, dear!"

"Is Twilight okay? Ah need to talk to her right now!" The farmer-pony wriggled and pranced nervously, as she watched the oncoming havoc.

"I'll live, Applejack. What's so urgent that you had to run me over to let me know about it?" Twilight shook her aching head out as Spike helped her back onto her feet. It took her a moment to clear her triple-vision and get the three Applejack s she could see aligned back into one, as she waived Rarity off.

"It's ah Doozie again!" The farmer pony stomped her hooves in worry, as she looked out he door.

"Doozie? Well, I'd say you running me over counts as one heck of a doozie!" Twilight shifted, moving to shut the door to prevent any more intrusions. Rarity looked over to the two bickering ponies in confusion as she floated an artistically organized stack of books and scrolls, sliding it into a shelf.

"No, Twilight, ah _Pinkie_ Doozie!" Applejack stamped her hooves again, pointing at the hardhat on her head, before blocking the door from shutting all the way, pointing out at Pinkie as she vibrated up the path to the library.

"Pinkie Pie? Why is it that this whole town is crazy! It can't be a Doozie, the last time involved me going crazier than normal for around here!" Twilight stepped back out of the way of the force of nature coming through her door, resisting the urge to bury her head within a book and not come back out until the next winter wrap-up. The last 'doozie' had involved a day's worth of pain, a hydra, a bog, and mortal peril to herself.

"Yup, the one and only-" Pinkie seemed to have more she had to say, but the sugar hyped ball of curly pink fluff began vibrating and twitching once more, rattling her hooves on the floor. "And the twitchy-twitch, TWITCHY-TWITCH!"

"What, now, Pinkie, dear? I had my hair done yesterday! Something falling on me would be awful!" The fashion master shivered at the horror of some of the feverish scenarios running through her mind, as she backed away.

"Hey, I don't make things happen, I just feel then coming!" Pinkie protested with vigor, as the darker blur at her rear began vibrating even harder. She squeaked with surprise as she was lifted slightly by it. "Twitcha-twitch! The Doozie's coming in fast! Eeik!"

"Wait, coming in? I'm not so certain I like the sound of that..." Twilight scooted over a set of books to look at her chart of observations from the previous night, and the object she had seen orbiting high in the skies, slowly passing overhead. She had thought at the time it had just been another microwave that had scared Princess Luna, but now...

"What'chya mean by that, Twilight?" Applejack had started to inch back from the pink predictive pony, a little more worried now that Twilight seemed to understand the babble.

"Well, things enter Equestria's air all the time, spiraling in from high above. But, they're moving faster than even Rainbow Dash's sonic rainbooms, and get really hot from pushing their way in. That's what makes shooting stars. Almost none of them reach the ground, though, sort of burning up far above." Twilight began reciting from memory, the skies, and the sciences thereof her second-favorite subject. She looked around, making certain everyone understood what she was trying to tell them, blank looks slowly changing to nods of understanding, or slightly worried frowns.

"Meteorites, in other words. Yanno, big, heavy, make a mess when they land and carve a chunk out of the ground and look nice when cleaned up?" Spike clarified Twilight's explanation as best he could for the others, knowing that his guardian tended to become too technical to understand.

"So, Pinkie's sense is getting so durn-faluting worked up... over a big rock?" Applejack's mind halfheartedly dreamt up an image of a smoldering rock squishing some of her prized orchard, sending a shiver down her tail.

"Applejack, please, even a mere 'rock' can be quite surprising, I can assure you of that. But, it does seem a bit... underwhelming, I suppose, if that is what this dreadful fuss is about." Rarity emerged back from the stacks of shelves, remembering her own encounter with a 'mere rock'.

"Well, I suppose you're probably right, Rarity. I mean, for a hunk of rock to be 'doozie worthy', it'd have to be..." Twilight hoof-quoted in slight dismissal of the idea. She had already separated the two imminent signs of trouble in her mind, even as the hyper pink party pony interrupted her.

"Double the size of Ponyvile! Huge and tremendously crazy, and today!" Pinkie bounced into the air, waiving her hooves about, before dropping back to the floor anxiously.

"Yeah, that would do... it... " Twilight stopped mid-thought, her 'critical random Pinkie event' monitor in her mind clicking into gear as she ran through the spaz again. The blood began to drain from her face as she realized just how much energy was involved.

"Twilight? Whatever is the matter Twilight?" Rarity looked her friend over, before looking between her and the pink earth pony beside her.

"Uh, Pinkie, 'tain't no way there could be a rock the size of Ponyvile floating around out there. Right, heh... heh... Twilight?" Applejack rubbed at the back of her neck, trying to squeeze out the shivers.

"Applejack? The ones that normally intercept Equestria are usually no more than 20 feet across. The ones we can actually detect, way out beyond Equestria? They're 10 to 20 miles across, if not bigger. I think I need to warn Princess Celestia about this..." Twilight spun around as she spoke, her words quiet as thoughts of what a collision would do to the world racing through her head as she telekineticaly grabbed a quill and paper.

"Hooo boy. That's gonna be an interesting new mountain. Ah'd hate to be nearby when it comes down." Applejack began to edge back towards the door, looking to get her little sister and get her home safe.

"Good heavens, I would imagine the hideous change in scenery would be the least of the issues involving of that size landing nearby." Rarity looked over at Applejack, wondering if she could make a stylish hardhat to suit her fashion choices quick enough as she inched closer to a sturdy shelf to brace against.

"It doesn't feel like a 'rock falls,everyone dies' twitchy-tail, more like a 'oh my gosh, not my expensive new TV going splat!' twitchy tail!" Pinkie bounced once more as she tried to get everyone's attention once more, as her whole body began to react strangely as her senses grew ever stronger as the event grew closer.

"Uh, Pinkie, the reason Twilight is so panicked is because the big ones are supposed to be too big to slow down, and, well, sorta SPLAT ickily when they hit the ground, like what would happen if Rainbow Dash hit the ground in the middle of her sonic rainboom!" Spike spoke quietly, surprisingly so for his nature.

"Ohmygosh, Where's Dashie!" Pinkie looked about as she realized that the cyan pegasus, fastest in the land, hadn't been seen all day. She knew that being outside was bad news, whatever it was that was coming down. "We've gotta tell her!"

Rarity winced as she tried to unscrunch her face out from between the earth pony's hooves. The manic face Pinkie stared into her own with slightly terrified her on a primal level, the look of a pony possessed. "You're disturbing my facial, Pinkie..."

"Pinkie, gal, we haven't seen her all day, but we can go find her taegether, if you let Rarity go." Applejack placed a hoof on her fellow earth pony's shoulder, trying to wedge herself between the two, her voice concerned. Her hefty push broke Pinkie's grasp, and the farmer stepped between the two to keep her from getting up on Rarity again. "Ya calmed down now?"

"Ohmygosh! You're right, c'mon, guys! Dash doesn't know! Let's go!" Pinkie turned as she shouted in worry, her fluffy, cloud-like mane lagging behind for a moment from the force and speed of her movement, before snapping back as she bounced out the door with all the speed she could muster. Her wake pulled the dust from the stoop and front yard up into the air, choking the view as she headed out to find her partner in crime.

Applejack bit back a rant about Pinkie's manners and common sense as she did her best to wave the cloud away from the door. She could hear Twilight continuing to scribble away at her desk. Thoughts of what her little sister distracted her for a few moments, before she shook her head to clear it. The 'crusaders' were busy getting detention from Cheerlie after one of their cutie mark quests ended up trashing half the school. So long as they didn't find out, she'd be as safe as anywhere she could shove the little filly on short notice.

Rarity, meanwhile, was trying to clean the dust from her coat, making soft 'ick, ick, ick!' sounds as she felt the tenacious material settle into her mane. "Aauuugh! It's all over me! I'm hideous and disgusting!"

Twilight started to look up, her quill floating in midair under her power for a moment, before she dove back into her writing, trying to underscore the potential severity of the situation to her mentor. Spike waved the other two ponies off at Applejack's look.

"Catch up with her, guys. We'll catch up when Twilight is done."

"C'mon Rarity, we've got ourselves a party on hooves and a pesky fly'n, feathered applesnatcher to hunt down!" Applejack cheered out as she jumped into action, mane waving wildly for a moment, leaving Rarity behind as she continued to try to restore her impeccable appearance. At least for a moment, before the farmer pony galloped back, grabbing her by her silk scarf. "C'mon Rarity!"

"Not the maaaane!" Rarity's shriek of surprise and discomfort found itself cut off as Rarity's scrabbling hooves, looking for anything to grab to save herself from a dusty fate, hooked on the door, dragging it shut as she was carted off by Applejack, slung over the farmer-ponies' shoulder.

Spike blinked a few times, his inner crush and knightly tendencies towards Rarity warring with his healthy dose of respect and terror towards the sheer brute applebucking force of Applejack. Silly little fantasies of rescuing Rarity from Applejack all dressed up in a villainous getup had only gotten started when Twilight broke him out of his slightly dazed daydreaming state with a light poke.

"Spike, would you mind sending this letter to the princesses... wait, where did everyone go?"

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><p><strong>Crystal Lake, Ponyville/**

"Told you that you had at least one flier's bone in your body, Fluttershy! That was so ~awesome~!" Ponyville's top weatherpony grinned down at the exhausted yellow and pink pegasus resting on the ground below her, as she hovered about midair. The "pesky, flying feathered applesnatcher", as she had been known to be called around town, had wanted to boost the yellow pegasus's confidence after she had been moping around town and her cottage.

Rainbow Dash hated seeing the animal-loving Pegasus in such a state, even if she did rarely ever interact with the shying Pegasus. So, in her own awe-inspiring, death defying, physics breaking fashion, she had built the most awesome confidence building weather training course _ever_, to show Fluttershy that she had more ways than she had ever thought of helping the animals of Ponyville.

Then, of course, when she looked at what she had built, she had realized that she had built a cloud-course better suited for the Wonderbolts than Fluttershy. At least she had gotten some use out of it, by giving cloud-wrangling lessons to get her started, and in the mindset to push herself. Not that they had been entirely successful, what with the way that Fluttershy was afraid to hurt even a fluffy cloud.

Dash had just about been ready to give up, until she realized that her approach wasn't compatible with Flutershy's personality. The idea of getting in the habit of thinking of clouds as horribly naughty sky creatures who needed to be rounded up worked pretty good, actually. It took a little while, but the always competitive pony was proud to think that she was probably 20% better at figuring out what Fluttershy needed to learn with than those stuffy school teachers back in Cloudsdale.

And, after a pep talk, she had glided with Fluttershy through the course. Alright, well, chased her with a baby thunderstorm through it, leading to the elder mare's current exhausted state. Might not have been the best of ideas, especially after she had sicced 'The Stare' on her. It turns out that it actually was pretty much the most horrifying thing she had ever seen.

"Ah, don't worry about it, ya' did pretty good for someone who never actually finished flight school. Not as cool as me, but then again, I'm not as cool as me, after all..." Dash glided to a landing beside her friend, giddily talking her up.

"Yay~"

"Heck, that's got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen you do. Well, besides making a full grown dragon cry like a little girl!" Dash trotted to a halt beside her friend, nuzzling her slightly in a friendly way. She wasn't too comfortable on the ground, though that was more psychological than anything else.

The soft, spongy grass yielded beneath her, the dewy moisture from the unplanned showers of the flight lesson cool and nice to the touch. Fluttershy perked up somewhat, as the birds ever so slightly began to chirp as they came out to enjoy the cleared air. The clear skies were as blue as the constantly competitive Dash, high altitude clouds at the fronts of packaged weather systems drifting high above the crystal clear lake.

"Oh, I never meant to do that, that was so mean of me..." The softspoken yellow pegasus slightly hid her face behind her bangs, remembering uncomfortably the state her mind had been at at the time. She barely recognized herself in the fury that had enveloped her at the time. It reminded her of... no, best not to remember those days.

"Fluttershy, what you did was hardly mean at all. That dragon was really asking for it, after all. I.. uh, looked it up afterwards, and the Princesses have a treaty with them that's supposed to keep them away from towns..." Dash rubbed her mane, reluctant to discuss her other hobby. As it was, she was about ready to indulge in her favorite pastime, and take the mother of all naps.

"But I scared him so badly. What if he got hurt, or went somewhere where he'll have a horrible nap, or ends up eating a whole town of ponies or other people in a single bite, or~" Fluttershy shrank down into herself a little with each thought of what her staredown of the dragon might have done to him, her boosted confidence not withstanding her torrent of concerns. As the two focused on each other, neither noticed the mass of curly pink rising from behind Fluttershy, looming towards her...

"OR! Maybe he threw the bestest party Equestria has ever seen! Like the 'We Need to Find Shelter Right Now!' party I'm throwing for the two of you!" Pinkie's nearly ultrasonic shill squeak of excitement rattled the lake, the local wildlife running terrifiedly for cover. Pinkie bounced a few times as she slightly settled down, looking about quickly for anyone else about.

Dash took a few moments to calm her heart rate down, and brush back her mane before responding. She could see Flutershy's quivering tail flopped down and out of one of the nearest trees, so she wasn't too worried about her fellow pegasus. She sighed, then at last laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. "Pinkie Pie, have I ever mentioned how completely random you are? '

"Once or twice, usually when sugarblitzed. But I'm being serious! Twitchy-Tail Doozie! Twitchy-Tail Doozie!" Pinkie Pie taked as clearly as she could, her remarkably clear and non-motormouth warning starting alarm bells for Dash, as the pink earth pony bounced in supreme frustration and worry.

"Wait, twitchy tail and... uh-oh." Dash had gotten to her feet in order to go reassure Fluttershy, only to freeze midstep as the potential implications of that combo hit home. She unruffled her popped out startled wings and launched herself into the air, hovering beside her companion's hiding place. "Fluuuttershy! C'mon, you need to come down before you get hurt! Pinkie's having a Doozie about something falling."

"But the big scary monster is out t~there..." The long pink tail shivered slightly with it's owner's fear.

"It's just Pinkie... well, being Pinkie, Fluttershy. You're not gonna get eaten or anything. C'mon..." Dash gently coaxed at her fellow pegasus for a moment, before grumbling and biting a grip down on her tail and tugging hard to pull her out. She strained, as the yellow pegasus yelped and clung tighter to the trunk.

"Well, I dunno about eaten like a big tasty cupcake, but twitchy tail says 50% change of getting squished a little later!" The earth-bound pony bounced again, reaching up as high as she could go to help haul Fluttershy down so they could get moving. Not that she actually could reach, given she was 10 feet off the ground, and wound tight around the tree, though her grip was loosening.

"That tail 'o yours have a setting for 'imminent applebucking'?" The sound of the other two ponies galloping up echoed slightly off the water, as Applejack gave a good hard frown towards Pinkie, even as she slid to a stop, the wet grass holding down the dust. Soft squeaks from up the tree heralded Dash pulling Fluttershy clear, the shying pony dangling awkwardly by her tail below Dash. "Why did'ya run off like that? We nearly got lost trying to find ya'!"

"I had to throw a 'We Need to Find Shelter Right Now' party for these two silly fillies! Buuuut, since you're here too, now, we can throw one for you guys, too!" Pinkie Pie's manic bouncing continued now, unstoppable and dizzying. Her two pegasus friends looked down at the new arrivals from where they hovered, confusion in their gaze as they tried to make sense of what she was saying.

"Long story. Something about deorbiting, or somesuch fiddlyness. Pinkie seems to think somthin' big is coming in from up above. Twilight's still writing a letter 'bout it the last Ah saw." Applejack fiddled with her hat once more, seating it properly on her head as she gruffed over Pinkie's antics. Orangy hooves stamped at the thick grass, as she looked about at the sparkling foliage. "Wait, what were ya' doing out here anyway? And how come it rained out here, instead of in town?"

"Err, well, practicing with Fluttershy. We needed to~" Dash shrugged as she spoke, having let Fluttershy go once she had gotten over the worst of her shying fit.

"~Help her to gain confidence in herself, oh how marvelous of you, Rainbow Dash! Simply selflessly generous of your time, even if you usually spend it sleeping instead of watching the weather." Rarity perked up a bit at the shy smile and blush on her favorite pegasus's face, her timidness and quiet-spoken nature simply lovely to the brash and vain seamstress.

Farmer and weather-pony eyes met for a moment, sharing a brief look of shared annoyance at the antics of their counterparts. Faintly, a soft thud could be heard off in the distance, a crack of displaced air rolling across the gentle hills. Only Pinkie noticed, as her twitch remanifested, tail wobbling about like a top in an earthquake. Her companions began to slowly turn to town, as they chattered, unaware of the fireball on the horizon.

"Uh, guys? Hellooooo... big, streakie-looking thing over there... Guys? HEY!" Pinkie at last screamed out in frustration as she grew tired of being ignored. The quartet stopped, looking back at her as she bounced in frustration, pointing past Canterlot at the steadily brightening fireball. "We need to hide NOW!"

"Sweet Tamales..."

"Oh my... what is it?" Fluttershy hovered in place, blinking to clear the afterimages of the bright fireball as it swerved in the air, banking back and forth as it tumbled slightly, backlighting the mountainside silhouette of Canterlot with the sheer intensity of the blazing light.

Her answer was delivered in the midst of the warbling _CRACK_ of Twilight teleporting in, an annoyed and smoking Spike on her lavender back. "A ship! A big one, and the princesses are going to try and drop it in the lake! We need to go NOW! RUN!"

A low, hateful rumble had begun to fill the air as the group turned and ran for the nearest hill as one, looking to put it between them as the mayhem to come. The auras of Equestria's rulers could barely be seen around the maelstrom, as they struggled to slow it down. The local animals began to run in fear, following the group towards anything to shelter them from the impact, as the little ponies picked up the pace.

"Why does this always happen to us!" Rarity screamed her terrified frustrations as best she could as she cleared the hill, tripping and falling on her face, the slope steep enough for her to start to tumble end over end as she slid down the slope. The others watched as they ran, looking on as she tumbled and rolled past them, towards the bushes at the bottom o the slope.

Trees had begun to shake and quiver in the howling winds, driven forth by the object, the deafening noise driving out all sound as the group jumped he last few feet, dog-piling into Rarity's form, driving her down under the canopy of the bramble and bush. White, brilliant light followed them, as the earthshaking thunder of over 3 million tons of white-hot metal hitting deep water shook the land, the superheated steam blowing a screaming-hot wind across the skies, darkening them with monster storms, until all was black...

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><p><strong>Equestria Daily Studios, Present Day/**

"As my mentor once said, 'gotchya'."

Laughter filled the air of the spacious studio, as the 7 pony panel reminisces. Older, wiser, not really any less foolish, the six former bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and Princess Luna in her regal black form sitting next to them, next to Rainbow Dash. The now military leader pony looked sharp, the black and blue-green of her suit matching Twilight's own on the far end, though hers was more formality now.

Slowly, though, the laughs would quiet down into a sober, solemn silence, as they all remembered why she was no longer amongst them. Twilight's milky, seemingly unseeing eyes passed over each of them in turn, a haunted look fleeting across her face as she remembered all of their heartache and struggle, all the pain between those happy days.

"I miss her, so much..." The lavender pony blinked back her tears, composing herself once more.

"We all do, Twilight. Ah'd say these past 100 years haven't been all that fair to any of us." Applejack gave a soft pat on the back to her friend, as she squirmed in her fancy dress, unused to the formal wear, even if it was a Rarity piece.

"She really was something special to all of you, wasn't she?" The ISN interviewer off to one side spoke up, hoping to get things back on track. His severe gray suit clashed with the colorful set and inhabitants, reminding him of his outsider status. With the hyperspace storms still sweeping around Equestria, and the almost obsessive-compulsiveness of Equestrians in defending their homeworld from _any_ threat, it was difficult for outsiders to step foot on Equestria proper, and most that did were there to stay.

"She was a friend."

"A parent and sister to me"

"She knew what to say, and when to say it for anyone."

"Mah most prized patron and sponsor."

"She was the biggest party ever!"

"She's the one who gave me hope and filled my dreams."

"A mentor, a protector, all of it, and so much more." Twilight bowed her head, quieting for a moment before deciding to continue. Throwing her mane back out of her face, she fixated her gaze on each of the panel in turn, remembering their roles in what had happened in those fateful years.

"But, in the end, she alone wasn't the deciding factor of the Great War, and the foundation of the Interstellar Alliance. For all that she did do, we are all responsible for as well. And those who passed on before us, those not able to be her, tonight, or this year." Twilight started quietly, slowly building up speed and power as she went along. She could hear, faintly in the back of her head, so many encouragements, so many memories of all her friends and family, of those who she had fought and bled for the sake of, even as others took up her part.

"We came here to set the record straight, to give proper credit where it is due. We are here to tell the story, of what we really did, of what Sheridan, Delenn, Garaboldi, G'kar, Londo, all of them. Each wove themselves into that tapestry, for better of worse." Rarity, slightly worse the wear for her years, had picked up where her friend had left off, voice cracking ever so slightly at the memory of Londo. The engineer and seamstress leaned over, her pastel yellow friend hugging her with a wing to comfort her.

"We came here, to show that even the worst of intentions could yield good, and that even the best of intentions can still result in the worst. For all of us have something we love and care for. Even if it is wrong." Fluttershy spoke up in Rarity's place, still meek, but at last confident, and sure of herself now. She at last had been tempered by events, even if it did cost her her innocence.

"We wanted to show, once and f'er all that people were honest, an' true to themselves. That it made the difference, when even mortal enemies could bury the hatchet in their hour 'a need, and work together for something better." Applejack sat a little prouder in her seat, accent as nearly unintelligible as ever. G'kar had been a good friend, after all, and for all the pain his death had brought, she still was at least honest enough to admit, even if only to herself, that going out like he had, giving hope to those who had none, was what he had wanted. Even if it was fighting alongside Londo.

"Even at the worst point of it all, we still had hope, for the future, and that we would all live to see better days. After all, all of could have been better, could be better even today!" Pinkie Pie giggled happily, having finally matured herself. The dark days had cut a bit of her pink, fluffy, go-lucky heart out; but the important part, her best parts, remained, stronger than ever. Maybe not as party-holic, but a shining, blazing beacon of goodness. Her formerly uncontrollable mane had finally calmed down, somewhat straightening out from her former near-afrofluff.

"And in the end, we're those who fought for us, all of us, stayed true to themselves, and to their comrades in arms, and to everything they thought they stood for, for better or worse." Dash gave a sad smile, bittersweet memories hitting her as well. Not all of her choices in life had been hers, though she wouldn't change her life's path for the world now. Her face was slightly streaked, scars from facing the Shadows on their own planet, and living to see another day.

"Because, if we didn't, who would? We, and those who stood beside us, looked to something greater, fought for something better and brighter than what we saw around us. We had to make a future, because if we didn't, others would make it for us." Princess Luna spoke from familiar memory, acrid, bitter laughter ringing harshly in her ears from long ago. Princess, not by birth, or choice, but because no-one was left.

"To them, all of them, we commit this documentary, and the truth. Their truth, our truth, well, The Truth. For those we walked Into The Fire for, and for all those who could not follow, or make it back, these are their stories, their memories, so that they might be remembered, not as legends, or heroes, or villains, but people, just like all the rest of us." Twilight looked at each of her friends, each had become something more than what they had started as, even if it had cost them all so dearly. Even if she could only see them through their auras now. Still worth it, all of it.

"Because, in the and, we all willingly stepped into the fire, knowing what was to come, not for ourselves, but for everyone we loved and cared for, everything we held dear. And in the end, that's all that matters." Princess Luna did her best to keep from choking on her own words, going back to that fateful summer day, way back when it all started. If she had really known, like Celestia had known, she still wasn't certain if she would have taken the same path, the less traveled path she had dared to follow...


End file.
